Steve Wilson

Good show on the road as Hawks impress to beat Wealdstone

Justin Bennett revealed a shock email confirming him as the Vanarama Conference South top goalscorer had helped spur him on to play his part in Gosport Borough’s Hampshire Senior Cup final success.

The Borough top scorer netted his 34th goal of a prolific campaign with an early penalty to put his side on their way to a comfortable 3-0 win over Sholing.

But that was after receiving the good news in his inbox that his 24 league goals had secured the golden boot in Vanarama Conference South, despite the league’s official website suggesting Boreham Wood’s Lee Angol had taken the top prize at the end of the season.

Bennett said: ‘I had some good news as it was confirmed I won the golden boot earlier in the day.

‘The league’s website said Lee Angol was the top goalscorer and then on another website, I was ahead of him so it was all a bit confusing.

‘But the league send out a newsletter so I just got the email and it turns out, I pipped him by one.

‘I was a bit gutted when I thought I had missed out and it was a bit of a sour note to end the season because I didn’t do that well in April.

‘But it was a nice bonus going into the game when I heard that I had won it after all.’

Although Borough’s record goalscorer barely had a sight of goal all evening, he took his only opportunity from the spot.

And after spending a period on trial at Pompey more than a decade ago, it was finally a chance to play at Fratton Park.

Bennett said: ‘I scored the penalty but I didn’t really get too many other chances on the night.

‘It didn’t feel like they troubled us too much and I think we were in control.

‘It was just a case of getting that second goal.

‘I was on trial at Pompey a long time ago but I never got to play at Fratton Park so it was nice to finally do that.

‘When I was on trial, they had just got promoted to the Premier League and I was there training for a couple of weeks.

‘It didn’t come to anything and then they signed Teddy Sheringham so I couldn’t complain too much!’